You Weren't Alone: July Was A No Good Very Bad Awful Month For Long Flight Delays

That time you were sitting on the tarmac for hours upon hours, hating life and cursing the sky gods for keeping you earthbound? You weren’t alone in July, as the government said it was worse than the previous eight months combined for planes stuck on the ground.

There were 28 planes stuck on the ground for more than three hours in July, 18 of which were U.S. airlines, reports the Associated Press. Chicago’s O’Hare travelers had it particularly bad, as 16 of those were from a thunderstorm on July 13 that kept 16 planes on the ground that were flying in or out of the airport.

One international flight was stuck for more than four hours which means it could get hit with a very large fine — up to $27,500 per passenger can be levied against an airline if a flight is grounded for more than three hours.

This kind of awfulness hasn’t happened since October 2011, which was the last time there were more delays in a single month. Last July there was only one three-hour-plus delay.

It wasn’t just super big delays that made July a bad month for air travel — flights were less timely in general in July than in June 2012 and July 2011. United Airlines had the worst record for getting planes in on-time.

Unsurprisingly, the more flights are stuck, the crankier we passengers get and we complained accordingly: The Department of Transportation had almost 2,5000 complaints in July which is about double what it received last year and up 50% from June.